Welcome to NetMECCG! by Mike Collins Introduction ------------ NetMECCG is a program for playing Middle Earth:The Wizards (an excellent game from Iron Crown Enterprises) head-to-head across an Internet connection. NetMECCG knows nothing about the rules of METW, it simply acts as a "virtual table"---it allows you to play, tap, move, etc. cards in whatever way that you want. Installation ------------ To use NetMECCG you need to be running Windows 3.1 (16-bit NetMECCG) or Windows 95/98 (32-bit NetMECCG). You need a screen resolution of at least 800x600. You also need to have a TCP/IP connection, either direct or dynamic (i.e., SLIP/PPP), if you want to play against another player. 32-bit version: To install NetMECCG, simply execute "setup.exe" on the first distribution disk. You will be guided though the setup process. Once installed, you can start NetMECCG by executing "netmeccg.exe" from the directory in which NetMECCG was installed (e.g., c:\NetMECCG), or by double-clicking on the NetMECCG icon in the NetMECCG folder. 16-bit version: Because I don't have a 16-bit installer, you have to do the installation by hand (sorry!). There are two files that you need: NMETW16.ZIP, and IDAPI.ZIP. (you don't need the second file if you already have the Borland Database Engine installed on your computer) Unzip the first file, NMETW16.ZIP, in the directory that you would like to install NetMECCG in (e.g., c:\netmeccg). Make sure that you use the -d option to expand all of the subdirectory names. Next, unzip the second file, IDAPI.ZIP, in c:\idapi (I think that this can be a different directory, if you also change the lines that you add to your WIN.INI --- see next step). These files are for the 16-bit Borland Database Engine. After you unzip IDAPI.ZIP, you'll find a file in that directory called ADDTOWIN.INI. As the name indicates, these are lines that you need to add to your WIN.INI. You'll probably want to restart Windows after you do that. Finally, to can start NetMECCG by executing "netmeccg.exe" from the directory in which NetMECCG was installed (e.g., c:\netmeccg). You'll probably want to create an icon for NetMECCG under Windows. Listing of files installed and required by NetMECCG to operate: - NetMECCG.exe - The executable - NetMECCG.hlp and NetMECCG.cnt - Help files - NetMECCG.ini - Initialization file - Cardinfo.* - The card info database - sites.txt - List of sites used when moving companies - regions.txt - List of regions used when moving companies - *.bmp - Generic card images displayed with card info - *.wav - Event sounds - c:\Program Files\Borland\Common Files\BDE\*.* or the rest of the files in the NetMECCG program directory - 32-bit Borland Database Engine or c:\IDAPI\*.* - 16-bit Borland Database Engine Also, I've included several useful files: - netmeccg.txt A text based version of the help file (NetMECCG.hlp). - siteinfo.txt by Mike Collins . The list of sites sorted by name, by region, and by playable. Lots of site info on this one. - *.dck (in the Decks folder) A bunch of example NetMECCG decks. These decks were converted from text descriptions at Geoffrey Scott Mercer's excellent "METW Deck Archive" . Look at "decks.txt" for a very brief description of each deck. Look at Geoffrey's WWW page full a full description of how to use each deck in a game. Some decks are incomplete, as I was unable to quickly make a deck from their text descriptions. Additionally, as many of these decks have been around for awhile, some decks do not use newer METD/MEDM cards, nor do they meet the 10-creatures-in-a-deck requirements, etc. These decks were used with permission from their authors. Thanks ------ The following have contributed to the making of NetMECCG: Iron Crown Enterprises - for both METW itself, and the permission to release NetMECCG to public Charles E. Bouldin, Esq. , Mike Hess , Juho Sarkila , Jason Klank and Daniel Spronk - beta testers Geoffrey Scott Mercer , Herve Guillemet and Mike Hess - pre-release reviewing Chi Vu - early beta testing Mark Hanes - *early* alpha testing Geoffrey Scott Mercer , Craig O'Brien , Bruce Mason , Joshua Grace , Scott Frazer , Dave Rice , Rob Waldo , Richard Vasseur , Dr. Cliff Yahnke , Steve Hess , Emiliano G. Padilha , Peter Galalis , Adrian S. Tabora and Rafael Beltrao Bronzon - contributed decks and above all, Sean Monahan , who besides myself had the most to do with NetMECCG being what it is. Sean inspired me to write NetMECCG in the first place when he moved to Nashville, then alpha tested, beta tested, play tested :-), critiqued, commented, made quality suggestions for improvement, did all the sounds, did all the proofreading of the card database and help, and created the animation of "The One Ring" on the about box. Legal Stuff ----------- This program is copyright 1996, 1997, 1998 by Mike Collins (that's me). If you want to contact me, try one of these methods: email: mcollins@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu mail: Mike Collins 5330 Shiloh Drive Columbus, OH 43220-5919 There is no warranty. Use "as is", and at your own risk. This program is FREE. Non-commercial users are under no obligation to send anything to me to use this program. If you find this program useful and you wish to express your gratitude, feel free to send money, rare Magic/Middle Earth cards, or a simple email/written "thank you" to me---I'd like to know that there are others benefiting from my work. This program is not to be redistributed commercially, nor is it to be distributed except in it's original form. Card names, card text and generic card images are published with the permission of Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, which reserves all rights in its intellectual properties. Card images (scans of individual cards) are *not* authorized for distribution, so *please* do not infringe upon this right. ICE has been generous enough to let me distribute NetMECCG, let's not abuse this generosity. Enjoy! Mike